Sadiq Khan

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This article is about the British politician. For the 18th-century shah of Persia, see Sadiq Khan Zand.
The Right Honourable
 Sadiq Khan
MP
Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Shadow Lord Chancellor
Incumbent
Assumed office
8 October 2010
Leader Ed Miliband
Preceded by Jack Straw
Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
In office
14 May 2010 – 8 October 2010
Leader Harriet Harman
Ed Miliband
Preceded by The Lord Adonis
Succeeded by Maria Eagle
Minister of State for Transport
In office
8 June 2009 – 11 May 2010
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Preceded by The Lord Adonis
Succeeded by Theresa Villiers
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
In office
4 October 2008 – 8 June 2009
Prime Minister Gordon Brown
Preceded by Parmjit Dhanda
Succeeded by Shahid Malik
Member of Parliament
for Tooting
Incumbent
Assumed office
5 May 2005
Preceded by Tom Cox
Majority 2,524 (5%)[1]
Personal details
Born 8 October 1970 (1970-10-08) (age 41)
Tooting, London, England
Political party Labour
Alma mater University of North London
College of Law in Guildford
Religion Islam[2]
Website www.sadiqkhan.org.uk

Sadiq Aman Khan (born 8 October 1970) is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tooting since 2005, succeeding Tom Cox as the Labour MP for the seat. He is currently the Shadow Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary (with responsibility for political and constitutional reform) since 8 October 2010.[3]

He had been Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jack Straw and was a member of the Public Accounts Committee. He had been a government whip with responsibilities for the justice department. But following the Cabinet Reshuffle of the 3 October 2008, Khan was promoted to be Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local Government. This was followed by a promotion to Minister of State for Transport in June 2009 and an appointment to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. He became Shadow Secretary of State for Transport when Lord Adonis stood down from the position following the Labour Party's election defeat in May 2010.

Following Gordon Brown's resignation as leader of the Labour Party he ran Ed Miliband's successful campaign to become leader of the Labour Party. In October 2010, he was elected to Shadow Cabinet, and appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Justice in Ed Miliband's first Shadow Cabinet. He shadows Ken Clarke but assists Harriet Harman during Deputy Prime Minister's Questions against Nick Clegg and his team.

He is regularly named as one of the most top 100 most influential London politicians in the Evening Standard's annual poll of the most influential 1000 Londoners.[4]

Contents

[edit] Early life

Khan was born in 1970 in London, to a family of Pakistani immigrants. His father worked as a bus driver. He grew up in a council flat on the Henry Prince Estate in Earlsfield, and attended Fircroft Primary and Ernest Bevin Schools, before going to the University of North London to study law.

He was a visiting lecturer at the University of North London, and a former governor of South Thames FE College. Khan was Chair of Liberty (NCCL) and has been Vice Chair of Legal Action Group (LAG).

He has been married since 1994 and has two daughters. Khan is also a keen follower of sport and a supporter of both Liverpool FC and Surrey County Cricket Club.

[edit] Legal career

Before entering parliament in 2005, Khan was a leading human rights solicitor and chair of the civil liberties pressure group Liberty for three years.

He completed the Law Society finals at the College of Law in Guildford and trained as a human rights solicitor at Christian Fisher. He later founded the firm Christian Khan with Louise Christian.

He specialised in actions against the police, employment and discrimination law, judicial reviews, inquests and crime, and was involved in a number of landmark cases including the following:

  • Bubbins vs The United Kingdom (European Court of Human Rights - shooting of an unarmed individual by police marksmen)[5]
  • HSU and Thompson v Met Police (wrongful arrest/police damages)[6]
  • Reeves v Met Police (duty of care to prisoners)[7]
  • Murray v CAB (discrimination)[8]
  • Ahmed v University of Oxford (racial discrimination against a student)[9]
  • Dr Jadhav v Secretary of State for Health (racial discrimination in the employment of Indian doctors by the health service)[10]
  • CI Logan v Met Police (racial discrimination)[11]
  • Supt Dizaei v Met Police (police damages, discrimination)[12]
  • Inquest into the death of David Rocky Bennett (use of restraints)[13]
  • Lead solicitor on Mayday demonstration 2001 test case litigation (Human Right Act)[14]
  • Farakhan v Home Secretary (Human Rights Act)[15]
  • In February 2000, Khan represented a group of Kurdish actors who were arrested by Metropolitan Police during a rehearsal of the Harold Pinter play 'Mountain Language', securing £150,000 in damages for the group for wrongful arrest and the trauma caused by their arrest.[16]
  • Mcdowell and Taylor v Met Police: Leroy McDowell and his friend Wayne Taylor, who both suffer from the blood disorder sickle cell anaemia, successfully sued the Metropolitan Police for assault and false imprisonment.[17]

[edit] Political career

[edit] Councillor

Khan was a Councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth from 1994–2006, representing Tooting ward. He was made an Honorary Alderman of the Borough of Wandsworth in 2006.

[edit] Member of Parliament

In 2003, Tooting Constituency Labour Party decided to open its parliamentary selection to all interested candidates, including the incumbent MP since 1970, Tom Cox. This prompted Cox, in his mid 70s, to announce his retirement rather than risk deselection. In the subsequent selection contest, Khan beat five other local candidates to become Labour's Parliamentary candidate. After his election to Parliament in 2005, Khan remained a councillor until the May 2006 council elections.

Khan was awarded 'Newcomer of the Year' by the Spectator Magazine Parliamentarian of the Year awards 2005 "for the tough-mindedness and clarity with which he has spoken about the very difficult issues of Islamic terror".[18] In August 2006, he was a signatory of an open letter to Tony Blair criticising the UK's foreign policy.[19]

On 3 February 2008, The Sunday Times[20] claimed that a conversation between Khan and prisoner Babar Ahmad (a friend and constituent) at Woodhill Prison in Milton Keynes was bugged by the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch.[21] An inquiry was launched by Justice Secretary Jack Straw.[21] There was some concern that the bugging contravened the Wilson Doctrine that police should not bug MPs. The report concluded that the Doctrine did not apply because it was ordered by a police officer and not an MP.[22]

On 6 May 2010, Khan was re-elected as MP for Tooting despite a swing of 3.6% and a halving of his previous majority, facing Mark Clarke of the Conservatives, getting a total of 22,038 votes.

In the 2010 Labour leadership election, Khan was an early backer of Ed Miliband, and later became his campaign manager.[23] He masterminded Miliband's shock win over his older brother David, and has been tipped as a rising star of the Labour Party, jumping 82 places in one year to 16th in The Daily Telegraph's 'top 100 most influential left-wingers' poll.[24] He has been rewarded with the post of shadow Lord Chancellor and justice secretary.[3][25]

[edit] In government

Following Gordon Brown's cabinet reshuffle of 3 October 2008, Khan was made to be a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Communities and Local Government, replacing Parmjit Dhanda. In January 2009, in the House of Commons, Khan criticised the Pope for the rehabilitation of Richard Williamson following his remarks about the holocaust a move he described as "highly unsavoury" and of "great concern".[26]

In 2009, he became the first Muslim to attend (when his ministerial responsibilities were on the agenda) the Cabinet upon his appointment as Minister of State for Transport, a role in which he was the primary minister for his department in the Commons because the Secretary of State, Lord Adonis, sat in the Lords.[27] In what is believed to be a first for an MP, Khan used Twitter to announce his promotion to Transport Minister.[28]

In March 2010, he publicly stated that for the second year in a row he would not be taking a payrise as MP or Minister of State for Transport, saying "At a time when many people in Tooting and throughout the country are having to accept pay freezes I don't think it's appropriate for MPs to accept a pay rise."[29]

[edit] In opposition

Harriet Harman promoted Khan on 14 May 2010 to Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, making him a Shadow Cabinet attendee.[30] After running Ed Miliband's successful leadership campaign, Khan was elected to the Shadow Cabinet with 128 votes. Miliband appointed him Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, giving him responsibility for shadowing a department in which he previously served as a junior minister.

[edit] Expenses

In April 2010 it was revealed that Khan had repaid wrongly claimed expenses on two further occasions. The first incident concerned letters sent out before the General Election which were ruled to have the 'unintentional effect of promoting his return to office', the second a £2,550 repayment for Christmas, Eid, and birthday cards for constituents.[31] Under Commons rules, pre-paid envelopes and official stationery can only be used for official parliamentary business.[32][33][34] Khan's claim for the birthday cards was initially rejected, but he presented a new invoice no longer identifying the nature of the claim, and this was accepted. Khan apologised for breaking the expenses rules.[35][36][36]

Khan had previously had to repay £500 in expenses in 2007 in relation to a newsletter sent out constituents featuring a 'Labour rose', which was deemed to be unduly prominent. While the content of the newsletter was not deemed to be party political, the rose logo was found to be unduly prominent which may have had the effect of promoting a political party. The rules were retrospectively changed disallowing the claim, which had previously been approved by the House of Commons Authorities.[37][38]

[edit] Other roles

Khan is a governor of Fircroft School and of Gatton School, both are in Tooting.

He is also Chair of the Fabian Society,[39] and in 2009 won the prestigious Jenny Jeger award for best Fabian pamphlet, for his publication 'Fairness not Favours: How to re-connect with British Muslims'.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "BBC Election 2010". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/constituency/e73.stm. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  2. ^ Khan, Sadiq. "Question Time". http://www.sadiqkhan.co.uk/index.php/news/1180-question-time?4bcca4bd673637b028d7767aee95d1b6=cab00dd228cb10a0062537060c56514c. Retrieved 29 September 2010. 
  3. ^ a b "Ex-Home Secretary Johnson is named shadow chancellor". BBC News. 8 October 2010. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11499638. 
  4. ^ "London's 1000 most influential people 2010: Politics". Thisislondon.co.uk. 2010-11-26. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-home/article-23897502-londons-1000-most-influential-people-2010-politics.do. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  5. ^ Bubbins v United Kingdom: Civil Remedies and the Right to Life - Martin - 2006 - The Modern Law Review - Wiley Online Library. 2006-02-24. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2230.2006.00583_1.x. 
  6. ^ Magrath, Paul (28 February 1997). "Law report: Juries to be given guidance on awards against police". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/law-report-juries-to-be-given-guidance-on-awards-against-police-1281004.html. 
  7. ^ Law Lords Department. "House of Lords - Commissioners of Police for the Metropolis v. Reeves (A.P.) (Joint Administratix of the Estate of Martin Lynch, Deceased)". Publications.parliament.uk. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldjudgmt/jd990715/reeves01.htm. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  8. ^ "Latest British Employment Law News". emplaw.co.uk. http://www.emplaw.co.uk/content/index?startpage=data/03irl340.htm. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  9. ^ "Latest British Employment Law News". emplaw.co.uk. http://www.emplaw.co.uk/content/index?startpage=data/2003733.htm. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  10. ^ "Jadhav v Secretary of State for Health". Homepage.ntlworld.com. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/rajen/Jadhav-v-SS/index.htm. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  11. ^ "Black officer's 'six figure sum' payout". BBC News. 13 November 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3266581.stm. 
  12. ^ Ali Dizaei
  13. ^ "David 'Rocky' Bennett Inquiry Report. News from Chrisitan Khan Solicitors, London UK". Christiankhan.co.uk. http://www.christiankhan.co.uk/ViewNews.asp?NewsID=15. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  14. ^ "*Austin and another v Metropolitan Police Commissioner - [2009] All ER (D) 227 (Jan)". Lexisweb.co.uk. 2009-01-28. http://lexisweb.co.uk/cases/2009/January/Austin-and-another-v-Metropolitan-Police-Commissioner. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  15. ^ "Farrakhan UK ban overturned". BBC News. 31 July 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1467587.stm. 
  16. ^ Verkaik, Robert (2 February 2000). "£150,000 for police raid on Kurdish Pinter play". The Independent (London). http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/pound150000-for-police-raid-on-kurdish-pinter-play-726752.htm. [dead link]
  17. ^ "Analysis: Officers' fear of being branded racist has done little to reduce bias over suspects". The Independent (London). 8 November 2002. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/analysis-officers-fear-of-being-branded-racist-has-done-little-to-reduce-bias-over-suspects-608687.html. 
  18. ^ "Parliamentarian of the Year". Spectator. 2005-11-19. http://www.spectator.co.uk/archive/features/14489/part_2/parliamentarian-of-the-year.thtml?SelectedIssueDate=19%20November%202005. Retrieved 2009-03-27. 
  19. ^ "Minister criticises Muslim letter". BBC News. 2006-08-12. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4787119.stm. Retrieved 2009-03-27. 
  20. ^ Michael Gillard; Jonathan Calvert (2008-02-03). "Police bugged Muslim MP Sadiq Khan". The Sunday Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3295393.ece. 
  21. ^ a b "Khan welcomes 'bugging' inquiry". BBC News. 2008-02-03. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7224786.stm. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  22. ^ Dodd, Vikram (22 February 2008). "Bugging of MP on prison visit did not break the rules, inquiry finds". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/feb/22/uksecurity.police?gusrc=rss&feed=uknews. Retrieved 2009-07-04. 
  23. ^ . http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/wandsworthnews/8167355.EXCLUSIVE___I_m_backing_Ed___says_MP_Khan/. 
  24. ^ "Top 100 most influential Left-wingers: 25-1". The Daily Telegraph (London). 29 September 2010. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/8032294/Top-100-most-influential-Left-wingers-25-1.html. 
  25. ^ "Asian-origin Sadiq Khan in Labour shadow cabinet". Indianexpress.com. 2010-10-08. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/asianorigin-sadiq-khan-in-labour-shadow-cabinet/694427/. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  26. ^ Prince, Rosa (2009-01-29). "Minister criticises Pope for pardoning Holocaust denial bishop - Daily Telegraph". Telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/4388359/Minister-criticises-Pope-for-pardoning-Holocaust-denial-bishop.html. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  27. ^ Harding, Eleanor (6 June 2009). "Tooting MP Sadiq Khan named first Muslim cabinet minister in Gordon Brown's reshuffle". The Wandsworth Guardian. http://www.wandsworthguardian.co.uk/news/4424355.Sadiq_Khan_named_first_Muslim_cabinet_minister/. Retrieved 6 June 2009. 
  28. ^ Banerjee, Subhajit (2009-06-07). "Minister appointment on Twitter - Daily Telegraph". Telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/twitter/5467688/MP-Sadiq-Khan-announces-his-Transport-Minister-appointment-on-Twitter.html. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  29. ^ "Minister: All MPs should give up their Ł1,000 pay rise | News". Thisislondon.co.uk. 2010-03-08. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23812964-mps-urged-to-give-up-pound-1000-pay-rise.do. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  30. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: 'Bitter-sweet' promotion for Sadiq Khan MP". Wandsworth Guardian. 14 May 2010. http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/local/wandsworthnews/8167341.EXCLUSIVE___Bitter_sweet__promotion_for_Sadiq_Khan_MP/. Retrieved 17 May 2010. 
  31. ^ "General election 2010: Transport minister Sadiq Khan in election expenses row - Telegraph". The Daily Telegraph (London). 12 April 2010. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/election-2010/7579476/General-election-2010-Transport-minister-Sadiq-Khan-in-election-expenses-row.html. 
  32. ^ Beckford, Martin (9 December 2010). "MPs' expenses: 17 MPs were re-elected after secret deals on expenses". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/8192570/MPs-expenses-17-MPs-were-re-elected-after-secret-deals-on-expenses.html. 
  33. ^ Beckford, Martin (10 December 2010). "MPs' expenses: the secret deals revealed". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/8192581/MPs-expenses-the-secret-deals-revealed.html. 
  34. ^ "'Secretly' resolved MPs' expenses cases made public". The Guardian (London). 9 December 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/09/secretly-resolved-mps-expenses-cases-made-public. 
  35. ^ Brown, David (16 March 2010). "Transport Minister Sadiq Khan repays 2500 wrongly claimed on expenses". The Times (London). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7063316.ece. 
  36. ^ a b "Minister repays £2,500 expenses". BBC News. 15 March 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8569397.stm. 
  37. ^ "Microsoft Word - Baker-Bruce-Khan - CRC Rep.doc" (PDF). http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmstnprv/182/182.pdf. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  38. ^ "Minister's rose emblem broke rule". BBC News. 2007-12-13. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7142779.stm. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 
  39. ^ "Executive Committee - The Fabian Society – where the British left thinks". Fabians.org.uk. http://www.fabians.org.uk/executive-committee-mainmenu-64/executive-committee. Retrieved 2011-06-07. 

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Tom Cox		 Member of Parliament for Tooting
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Parmjit Dhanda		 Undersecretary of State for Communities and Local Government
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